Niclas Füllkrug's early penalty double puts Werder Bremen on the way to a 3-2 win at Mainz

Niclas Füllkrug scored twice from the penalty spot inside the first 25 minutes, and Werder Bremen held on through a Mainz fightback to win 3-2 at the MEWA Arena. Anthony Caci and Lee Jae-Sung both scored headers to drag the hosts level in the second half, but Ludovit Reis's goal in between proved decisive in a five-goal afternoon.

Füllkrug strikes twice from the spot

Bremen could hardly have made a better start. Füllkrug converted a penalty in the 7th minute, and did the same again in the 25th, putting the visitors 2-0 up before the home crowd had settled. Mainz needed a response, and they found one through Anthony Caci, whose header — set up by Sheraldo Becker — made it 2-1 in the 33rd minute and gave the hosts something to build on going into the second half.

Werder restored their two-goal cushion in the 61st minute when Ludovit Reis, assisted by Marco Grüll, scored from open play. Mainz would not go away quietly: Lee Jae-Sung headed in a second Mainz goal in the 63rd minute, Caci turning provider this time, to make it 3-2 and set up a nervy final half hour. Bremen's defence held firm from there, seeing out a result that owed everything to those two early penalties.

How the goals came

Match stats

Cards

• 38' — Ludovit Reis (Werder Bremen), yellow
• 69' — Phillipp Mwene (Mainz), yellow
• 90+4' — Alexander Schwolow (Mainz), yellow

Bremen's steady climb

Werder had won two and drawn three of their previous five, unbeaten in that stretch and conceding only eight goals along the way — a run built on the kind of control this game needed once Mainz hit back. Mainz, by contrast, had alternated win and loss through their last five: beating Hamburger SV and Gladbach either side of a defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, then losing to Bayer Leverkusen before beating Schalke. Twice taking the lead away from a two-goal deficit was true to that erratic recent form, even if it was not enough to save the point.

Line-ups

• Mainz (3-5-2): Alexander Schwolow — Stefan Posch, Kacper Potulski, Danny da Costa — Nadiem Amiri, Lee Jae-Sung, Kaishu Sano, Phillipp Mwene, Anthony Caci — Phillip Tietz, Sheraldo Becker
• Werder Bremen (4-2-3-1): Karl Hein — Marco Friedl, Amos Pieper, Olivier Deman, Arthur — Chuki, Youri Regeer — Ludovit Reis, Niclas Füllkrug, Marco Grüll, Mitchell Weiser

What the result means

Werder Bremen move up to 6th on 12 points, level with RB Leipzig and firmly inside the European places. Mainz stay on 10 points but drop to 7th, overtaken by both Bremen and an Elversberg side level with them on points but behind on goal difference — a tight group that this result has only made tighter.